The wandering earth

This is not a review. If you want to read about the content of the "The Wandering Earth" short story collection, the style of Cixin Liu's writing, or any kind of qualitative analysis I think you will very easily be able to find a great many alternatives. Rather, I would like to use my small forum here to attempt to convey something far more difficult to articulate: a single echoing sentiment--a reverberating feeling drummed up by Cixin Liu's stories, now permanently wedged in my psyche. Before I even begin, I must accept the fundamental impossibility of this endeavor--the true taste of a thing so ephemeral and personal cannot be translated from one person to another without fundamental changes, alterations, omissions and occasional additions of meaning. So, therefore, I shall attempt brevity. Cixin Liu is a "big idea" science fiction writer at a level precious few can aspire to. His strength is not the effortless grace of raw prose, unexpected machinations of plot, nor the alluring draw of living characters. He writes speculative fiction from the most fundamental premise: what would it be like if X were to happen? What would happen if human civilization still dwelt on the Earth when our Sun finally transitions to a red giant, fundamentally altering the geography and ecology of the Solar System? What would happen to human societies if pure capitalism was allowed to evolve freely, in its most ideologically pure state? What would happen if space travel became so routine that skilled laborers might find themselves in orbit, bereft of the mighty educations and intellects of the first astronauts? Each question opens up new and interesting possibilities, and Cixin Liu explores them perfectly. While his novels are indeed formidable works in their own right, he is an author whose last, best destiny is the short story. Liu joins his powerful imagination with a keen understanding of human nature, history and science to present us with plausible scenarios that are at every time both immediately familiar and utterly bizarre. He is as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were: a titan of the genre, who eclipses almost everyone else. To be honest, I never thought I'd encounter another author capable of imbuing in me that unstilled sense of wonder that Clarke and Asimov did in the days of my childhood. But I was--beautifully and unexpectedly--proven wrong. If you look for fiction focused on characters or plot or setting you may not find much of any great worth in Liu's work... but if you adore science fiction for the very idea of it, for the wonder and prescience and transcendentalism it can sometimes reach, these short stories are absolutely vital and necessary.

Loving the book

Liu is one of the most prominently-exposed, to English-speaking audiences at least, contemporary Chinese SF authors. This collection includes several stories which won Galaxy Awards, and the quality level is naturally very high. If there is a unifying theme here, it’s the fate or future of the Earth and of humanity. This isn’t as obvious as it might seem, since not all SF goes quite that deep. But Liu does go deep, and comes up with a variety of future scenarios that range from cautiously optimistic ("Sun of China" and, maybe, "Mountain") to dark and deeply pessimistic ("Taking Care of God" and "Devourer", although in very different ways.) The duo of "With "Her Eyes"/"Cannonball" manages to span both extremes. This continues a tendency I noticed in reading other Chinese SFF anthologies: no one is entitled to a happy ending. It's not that everything in the collection is dominated by the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, although there is a bit of that in some places. It’s more SF as realism: Liu seems to feel that the chips should fall where they may in terms of his storylines. This is largely a good thing but can be jarring at moments. In "Mountain", for example, the protagonist’s new-found desire to climb a universe full of new and every-higher mountains comes about only after, and because of, his earlier involvement in a tragedy while climbing. Liu’s not having it with forced optimism or deployment of a deus ex machina ensuring happy endings. Quite the opposite: it seemed like any deus making an ex machina appearance here probably was on the way to destroy the Earth, Sun, or humanity. The writing is strong. "Devourer" was one of the few stories that didn’t resonate with me–it started strongly, but descended into a bizarre pastiche of cuteness and doom that was jarring and seemed underbaked. But aside from that, I felt Liu had infused the other stories with a gravitational force that made me want to keep turning pages even when I really wasn’t sure where he was going with things. Credit here also goes to the translators who handled the stories. In the end, though, it’s fundamentally the author’s burden to create readable works. Liu’s ability to spin stories and perspectives from the diverse and divergent perspectives here is a credit to his versatility and skill.

I started this book expecting to read a story about humanity's struggles while traveling through the galaxy "The Wandering Earth". But this book was something else, I love how some stories connected to one another and it was such a fun read. I really enjoyed this and I love the way the story flowed'.

This is an amazing collection of short stories. It lets you appreciate Liu's artistry in manageable bites, if you're intimidated by the length of The Three-Body Problem (let alone its surrounding trilogy). It's hard sci-fi, but the aliens and the future tech are just in the background. Liu really writes about human emotion. Right up there with the finest (non-genre) literary storytellers, he heart-rending stories about love and loss, inequality and injustice.

Earth's Sun is doomed. As escape, the earth's population want to take the whole planet with them. And they do. This novel explores the time from conceiving this idea to leaving solar orbit and is an interesting physical and social speculation about how it could be. A sequel is due describing the journey of the earth - I will read it when it comes out.

Cixun Liu es capaz de imaginar y de transmitir la inmensidad del espacio y el tiempo cósmicos como ningún autor que haya leído hasta ahora. Sus historias desbordan hechos y situaciones de una imaginación portentosa enlazados unos tras otros como matrioskas, esas muñecas rusas que encajan unas dentro de otras sin parar. También he agradecido la visión realista y algo descorazonadora de la volubilidad de la opinión de las masas. Wandering Earth es una colección de relatos que no dejará indiferente a ningún lector con neuronas en funcionamiento.

Cixin liy amazing

Great collection of hard sci-fi. Every tale took me somewhere amazing and shook my soul profoundly. A great read! Cannot recommend enough!

Commandé le 15 février et reçu le lendemain ... excellent du point de vue livraison ... mais le livre ne paraît pas comme neuf. Il est un peu écorné par endroit et la tranche est noircie par endroit. Je suis plutôt déçu par la pauvre qualité de ce livre supposé neuf et payé 9,41 Euros !!! Cependant, j'ai tellement envie de le lire que je ne le retourne pas ... mais je garde une grosse frustration !!